


1-18 Beach Party

by iippo



Series: Steven Universe Renaissance [18]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:21:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28383138
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iippo/pseuds/iippo
Summary: After a battle damages Fish Stew Pizza, Steven throws a cookout at the Temple to mend the relationship between the Pizza family and Amethyst.
Series: Steven Universe Renaissance [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1796686
Kudos: 1





	1-18 Beach Party

**Author's Note:**

> An alternative universe. See series page for details.

It was a bright and windy day on the beach in Beach City.

Oh wait, no, it was a nice, calm day. The wind was being caused by a ginormous pufferfish gem monster that was blowing gale force winds from its mouth like a super powerful reverse vacuum cleaner – with the howling sound to match. The Crystal Gems – Steven Univere and Amethyst – were fighting the monster, trying to disrupt its form, but they were badly outmaneuvered. A direct blow from the puffer sent Steven and Amethyst tumbling across the sand.

“You okay, Steven?” Amethyst called out, shaking sand from her hair.

“I've seen better days,” Steven admitted, laying face down in the sand on top of his boogie board. He had reckoned that a boogie board would be a good weapon for defeating a monster that creates wind and waves, but alas, his surf was up.

“Here it comes!” Amethyst announced as the fish monster noticed where they had flown to and came to chase them again.

“Steven's turn!” Steven yelped as he jumped on his feet and threw the boogie board like a frisbee at the monster. The board flew in a graceful arc, avoiding being blown away, and hit the monster’s spiky top half and lodged in. “Yup, it's got spikes,” Steven observed with his ‘hard-boiled detective’ -voice.

Amethyst slapped the monster with her whip, but there was no effect, and she wasn’t able to grab the puffer with her whip either in order to smash it against the rocks. Eventually Amethyst lost her patience.

“Ugh, whatever!” She growled and charged towards monster. Just as it was about to blow at her, Amethyst shapeshifted into a baseball bat and whacked the monster, sending it flying far into the ocean. But an errant gust of the monster’s wind combined with the continuing force of her swing sent Amethyst careening uncontrollably through the air towards the Boardwalk. Steven ran after her, calling her name.

\- - - -

The cloud of dust from her impact crater led Steven to Amethyst; she was laying immobile on the roof of the Fish Stew Pizza, amidst the shredded remains of the restaurant’s sign. One of the three lamps used to illuminate the sign was completely crushed.

The restaurant’s owner, Kofi Pizza, and his daughter Kiki were standing outside and looking at the roof. Kofi was yelling at Amethyst. “Would you _answer me_?! You've wrecked my sign, and now you're just sitting up there! Are we engaged in a secret staring contest?!”

Steven ran up to them and also called to Amethyst. “Amethyst! Are you okay?”

Amethyst looked towards Steven and jumped off the building, landing behind Kofi. “I'm fine,” she said with a tight expression, like she didn’t want to talk about it.

“Hi, Steven,” Kiki greeted him.

“I’ll see you back at the temple, Steven,” Amethyst said and jumped up high and away from the Boardwalk and all the people.

“Where are you going? What about my sign?” Kofi yelled after Amethyst. When it was obvious that Amethyst was gone and that yelling at her was as effective as yelling at clouds, Kofi turned to Steven. “Steven! What is wrong with your friend? She just busted up my sign and then just jumped into the sky like some circus act, without even offering to help!” He railed.

“But, Mr. Pizza-!” Steven tried to interject. Kiki was visibly uncomfortable at her father’s outburst but didn’t say anything.

Kofi’s hollering attracted the attention of the rest of his family. Kiki’s twin Jenny came out of the restaurant.

“Da-ad, pipe down!” She yelled out loud what Kiki was thinking but was too shy to say.

Kofi turned his ire to Jenny. “Ohhh! Did I interrupt your beauty sleep?” He mocked Jenny, who was yawning.

“I don't need sleep to look pretty,” came Jenny’s sassy reply as she leaned on the door frame.

“Now you listen here, young woman-!” Kofi started to rant at his daughter. Kiki stole a conspiratory glance at Steven, relieved that he was out of the line of fire. Kiki knew that Jenny was used to handling their father, so it was okay that she got yelled at, but it was incredibly awkward that he would yell at people outside of the family.

Nanefua Pizza appeared at the doorway of the restaurant, holding a dead fish. She stood next to Jenny. “Kofi, you are going to wake this fish from the dead with all the noise you're keeping,” she chided her son. “Oh, too late!” She shook the fish and pretended to be the fish: “Kofi, you so loud! Aaaahh!” She said with a funny fishy voice. She stuck her tongue out at Kofi and went “bleeeeeh!”

“Gunga, you're so funny,” Jenny complimented her.

“Mom! Quit joking around! Look what they did to my sign!” Kofi answered Nanefua, who obliged and exited the building to come see the damage.

“Cheese on bread-!” Escaped from Nanefua’s mouth when she saw the roof. And albeit she didn’t think Kofi was justified in yelling at everyone in town, she understood now why he was upset. The sign had been installed only a couple months ago, with new light fixtures and everything, and now there was a giant tear in the plywood facade of the shop, revealing the under-structures of the roof. Aka it was a giant mess.

“Can you believe it?” Kofi raged on. He noticed Steven again and turned to him. “You're such a nice boy, Steven. Why do you hang out with that animal?”

“She’s not an animal!” Steven yelled. “She’s a Crystal Gem, and she protects humanity-” He defended Amethyst.

“I've heard enough!” Kofi interrupted him, refusing to hear anything.

Nanefua glanced nervously at Kofi and Steven’s fight. “Hey, girls, I think I hear all of our cellphones ringing,” she said to clear the scene.

Jenny caught on quickly. “Gunga, your hearing is so good!” She said loudly and followed Nanefua into the restaurant with Kiki.

Kofi took a deep breath. “Steven, you can tell your friend that she is officially BANNED from Fish Stew Pizza!” He declared, and turned around to indicate that the conversation was over.

Steven was shocked. “Wait, what?! Kofi, that's not fair!” He ran after the restauranteur. “This was just an accident!” Steven pleaded.

But Kofi had made up his mind. He stomped back into the restaurant and flipped the sign at the door to say “Closed.” Steven pressed his face against the glass but when he realised that Kofi was not coming back, he turned around and walked away in despair.

Steven trudged back to the beach house. Amethyst was sitting in the living room, with various objects – an upside-down teapot, a salt shaker, a pepper pot and various other bits on the side – laid on the table in front of her.

“...no that’s not gonna work…” she mumbled in concentration and moved the pepper pot away from the teapot’s spout.

“Hi Amethyst,” Steven said with disappointment in his voice.

“Hey, Steven,” Amethyst greeted him back with a stressed voice.

“I've got bad news. You've been banned from Fish Stew Pizza,” Steven delivered his missive from Kofi.

“...Oh, uhhh, that's okay,” Amethyst said and turned her attention back to the objects on the table.

Steven was surprised. “Aren't you upset about this?” He asked, incredulously.

Amethyst looked back at him, also surprised. “Not at all?” She answered, unsure what the problem was.

“But... these are our neighbors!” Steven tried to explain.

“There's nothing we can do about that now,” Amethyst said with a shrug. “Right now, I have to figure out a way to take care of that pufferfish,” she said and motioned at the things on the table. “It’ll come back.”

But Steven wasn’t done yet. “What's the point of saving people if they're just gonna ban you from their pizza shops?” He pleaded with Amethyst.

“I don't do it for thanks,” Amethyst replied, still focusing on her objects.

“Yeah, see!” Steven exclaimed, frustrated. “That's so nice of you, the Pizzas don't even know! If they got to spend some time with you they'd see how fun, and smart, and mysterious you are!” He gesticulated emphatically, like a very small firebrand.

Amethyst chuckled. “Hah, mysterious.” She loved it when Steven got all fired up like this.

Steven pondered for a while. “Hmm... I know! I'll throw a little party on the beach in front of the temple! Just us and the Pizzas,” he suggested.

“I don't know, Steven,” Amethyst hesitated. “I mean-” she glanced at her living room table strategy assemblage. She was no closer to figuring out what to do with the pufferfish than she was this morning on the beach. And she couldn’t keep punting it out into the ocean forever. She wished it would just go somewhere else and she could leave it be. But she had learnt that once gem monsters had been in contact with the Crystal Gems, the monsters kept seeking them out. She had no idea why it was, but even Rose had noticed this pattern in the monster behaviour, so Amethyst didn’t have much hope of the monsters of just, dropping it now. But she really wanted to give in to Steven’s temptation and take some time off to hang out with humans.

Steven didn’t understand the reason for Amethyst’s hesitation and mistook it for her dislike of doing stuff. “Don't worry! I'll take care of everything!” He said and ran out to prepare the party.

Amethyst stared at the door, then shrugged to herself and looked back at the objects on the table. She could use the intervening time to come up with a plan. “ _Plus_ ,” she thought, “ _I_ _hit the puffer really hard so it probably flew really far away and wouldn’t come back in a long time. So taking time to hang out today_ _is totally_ _fine,_ ” she reasoned to herself.

\- - - -

By the late afternoon everything was ready on the beach and the Pizzas had said they would come. Steven had set a table and chairs on the beach, and he was cooking hamburgers and hot dogs over the coals of the small grill he had set up. He was giddy with excitement.

“Man, this is gonna be so good,” he giggled and sniffed the food.

The scent of food lured Amethyst out of the house. “Hey, Steven,” she called as she approached.

“Hey!” He replied.

“Got everything ready for your little party?” Amethyst asked and looked at the setup.

“Yeah! But there's one more thing,” Steven replied and handed Amethyst an old issue of Foine Summer Special. Amethyst grabbed the magazine and leafed through.

“What's this for?” Amethyst asked, looking at pictures of humans with sun-kissed cheeks, salt-water hair and fanny packs.

“I was thinking you could change your outfit,” Steven proposed, and motioned to his own get up. With his usual jorts and flipflops he was wearing a pink sleeveless shirt with a yellow star on it, instead of his usual pink t-shirt with a yellow star on it.

“Err, what's wrong with what I have on now?” Amethyst asked with a frown and looked at her form.

“Nothing!” Steven hurried to answer. “I just thought it would be nice to go kinda casual.”

Before she had a chance to change her outfit, the Pizza family arrived. Steven and Amethyst could hear them chatting with each other as they walked towards the beach.

“Is this the right address?” Nanefua wondered out loud as they rounded the cliff and saw the ruins of the ancient gem structure that sheltered the beach house.

“I've never seen this side of the beach before,” Jenny said, also looking around.

“Oh man, they're here!” Steven yelped and ran to meet them. “Hurry up and change!” He called to Amethyst over his shoulder, before turning his attention to the arriving guests. “Over here everyone! Hi!”

“Hey, Steven!” Jenny and Kiki greeted Steven, and Nanefua said “hello” with a smile.

“How are you all doing today?” Steven asked as he got to the group and everyone stopped to stand around.

“The shop is closed today, because it's broken!” Kofi replied with an icy tone of voice. And with that, the mood got awkward. Kiki flinched and Jenny pretended to be very interested in the horizon. Nanefua couldn’t believe the manners of her son and stared at him in surprise.

Steven started to break into a nervous sweat. “Oh! Uh... that sounds, uh…” He stammered.

“Hey! Do I smell hot dogs?” Nanefua interrupted slightly loudly to steer the conversation away from Kofi’s complaints. “Show me where the hot dogs are,” she said and stepped past Kofi, who was giving her the stink-eye, and next to Steven.

“Oh, right this way, everyone!” Steven said, grateful for the rescue. He led them towards the grill and the table, where Amethyst was waiting. “First, let me introduce-”

“The Crystal Gems!” Amethyst announced loudly, struck a pose and shapeshifted her appearance so that she was wearing a crop top and shorts with a fanny pack and her hair in a high ponytail, and introduced herself: “Amethyst!”

Steven hopped in next to her, and said: “And Steven! But you already knew my name…” He added with a nervous chuckle.

“Oh, you are so talented,” Nanefua said, keeping the conversation on friendly terms. Jenny and Kiki just stared in astonishment.

Kofi harrumphed. “So, you are a circus act.”

“Circus act?” Amethyst asked and looked at Kofi with raised eyebrows.

“Hey, let's eat!” Steven interrupted, borrowing a page from Nanefua’s book about how to redirect conversations that begin to veer into uncomfortable directions.

Everyone gathered around the table and Steven served the meats and buns according to everyone’s wishes: Amethyst, Steven and Kofi started with burgers and Nanefua, Jenny and Kiki with hotdogs.

“Everything came out great!” Kiki complimented Steven after everyone had got their first few bites.

“Thanks, Kiki,” Steven beamed.

“How long have you lived in this place?” Nanefua asked, looking at the temple with interest. 

“Steven moved in a couple years ago, but I’ve been here over 4000 years,” Amethyst answered before taking a huge bite from her hamburger. 

“Oh, you young people and your exaggerating sense of humour,” Nanefua laughed.

Amethyst picked up her cup to take a drink, and before sipping, said: “I am much older than you.” She closed her eyes and went bottoms up on her soda. Nanefua didn’t know what to say to that.

“So, you both live in that tiny house up on that hill?” Kofi asked.

Amethyst wrapped the rest of her burger in her paper plate and swallowed the combo. “Steven lives in the house – my room is in the temple’s inner sanctum that’s only accessible through a magical extra-dimensional door.”

Kofi, who had been watching and listening to everything Amethyst was doing and saying, couldn’t contain himself any longer. “What is wrong with you?” He asked.

“And why does this place look like it's falling apart?” Jenny added, looking at the decrepit temple.

“Well, the temple has been here for thousands of years-” Steven tried to explain. But that led Kofi to his new favourite subject.

“Ohhh! I see how it is, when something breaks around here, you just leave it alone... Just like the sign at my shop!” He yelled.

Steven started sweating again, and he looked around for a distraction. He spotted the beach game equipment that he had brought out for later. “Hey! Would you rather play volleyball or badminton?” He asked the group loudly.

After some deliberation it was decided that the game would be badminton. Steven picked up a stick and drew the court in the sand while Jenny and Kiki erected the net.

“But, Steven, won't my abilities give me an unfair advantage?” Amethyst asked Steven.

“That's why I was thinking you could play against doubles,” Steven answered and handed her two badminton rackets.

Nanefua looked at the preparations gleefully. “I haven't played in ages but I bet I could whoop all your butts,” she beamed.

“That's the spirit.” Steven beamed back. “You guys ready? Let's play!” He handed rackets to Jenny and Kiki. “You guys wanna go first? You can ask to substitute when you get tired.”

Steven threw the shuttle into the air and Kiki swatted it over the net. Amethyst returned the shuttle to the twins’ side of the court and the first rally was on.

Thanks to her gem abilities, Amethyst was able to beat Kiki and Jenny easily.

“Hmm,” Steven said when the twins ended up exhausted in the sand. “How about three against one?” He proposed and indicated to Kofi that he should join his daughters. He also handed a third racket to Amethyst, to keep the game fair.

“How is she supposed to ho-” Nanefua started to ask but didn’t manage to finish her sentence, as Amethyst shapeshifted a third arm for herself and used it to pick up the racket Steven was handing her. Nanefua realised that Amethyst was no circus act. Even Kofi couldn’t think of anything to yell about and just stared.

But soon everyone got used to the new normal Amethyst with her three arms and focused on the badminton. The game was a bit more even now, and Amethyst had to exert herself. She even missed some shots. The Pizzas soon figured out ways to team up against Amethyst by making various trick shots, calling instructions to each other. Some of their tactics weren’t exactly accoring to the rules of badminton, but no one seemed to mind.

“So exciting!” Nanefua cheered from the sidelines with Steven.

After one particularly high return by Kofi, Amethyst stretched her arm to strike the birdie down with all her might from way up high, and she smacked it so hard the projectile super-heated as it plummeted through the friction of the air. Everyone ran for cover. As the shuttle hit the sand like a meteor, the sand that got kicked up by the impact formed into spikes of glass.

“Whoaaa!” Jenny mumbled as she saw the delicate spiky flower of glass formation in the court. It was so hot smoke was still coming off it.

“Did you know that when sand is super-heated it turns into glass?” Nanefua asked Steven.

“I did not know that,” came the chipper reply.

“Whoops,” Amethyst said sheepishly. She picked up the glass formation and tossed it into the ocean. “My bad!”

The game was continued, with Steven and Nanefua happy to stay in the sidelines.

After a moment, an awkward lunging strike by Kiki sent the shuttle flying over Steven and Nanefua’s heads. “Agh!” Kiki yelped when she realised the failure.

“I’ll get it!” Steven called to the players and chased after the birdie. But when he was about to grab it, a strong gust of wind blew it towards him and it hit him in the face. “Hey!” Steven yelped. “Why is it getting so…” he started to say, but when he took the shuttle off his face and lifted his gaze forwards, he saw the pufferfish monster approaching, “WINDY!?” He yelled and turned around to run back to the group. “Ah, no! It's back! Pufferfish monster's back!” He yelled as he ran towards Amethyst.

Everyone turned to look at Steven.

Nanefua, who was closest to Steven, started: “What's all the-” but she was interrupted by Steven reaching her side, yelling, “Nanefua! Ruuuunnn!”

Amethyst saw Steven and Nanefua running and then the approaching gem monster. “Aah!” She yelled and dropped all of her badminton rackets. She grabbed Kofi, Kiki and Jenny each with an arm and jumped behind a temple fragment to relative safety.

“Hey!? What is going on!?” Kofi yelped as he got gemhandled by Amethyst, but soon everyone had caught a glimpse of the pufferfish and realised that the situation was serious.

Steven and Nanefua huddled by a low cliff. “This is terrible. I was trying to get everyone together, but now everyone's in danger.” He wailed.

“I'm not afraid of that thing!” Nanefua declared with a determined look and pushed off the rock to keep running. “Let's see if you can keep up with me!” She challenged Steven.

“Of course I can!” Steven replied and followed her.

They ran towards the pufferfish monster.

“Oh! Oh! Over here!” Nanefua called to the monster.

“No! Over here! Come on!” Steven also called, waving his arms over his head.

It worked: they managed to attract the monster’s attention and it began to follow Steven and Nanefua – except they were running in a tight circle around the monster, keeping just a few steps ahead of it and it’s tear-your-ears-off wind. The result was a bizarre monster carousel with the monster spinning in the middle, trying to attack Steven and Nanefua that circled it like it was all a game.

“What are they doing?” Kiki screamed in confusion.

“Everybody! Get ready!” Steven called to the others as his orbit got close to them.

“Mom, you are crazy!” Kofi yelled.

“Not crazy…” Amethyst said softly. “Brave.” She had no idea what Steven and Nanefua were doing, but she recognised it for what it was: strategy.

“Gunga! Careful with your back!” Jenny shouted.

“Amethyst! Go find my volleyball!” Steven yelled to Amethyst on his next pass.

“Okay!” Amethyst replied and ran off to find the volleyball, that had been the other option for their beach game. And even though she didn’t know what the full plan was, she felt strangely glad to have someone telling her what to do. Like she was not alone anymore, but a part of a team.

“Kofi, Jenny, Kiki! Get over to the net!” Nanefua called out the instructions to her family, while still running circles around the monster. She thought that her legs should start feeling tired by now, but somehow – probably because of the adrenaline – she was not feeling it.

“Sure thing!” Jenny answered and took a hold of Kiki’s hand. Followed by Kofi, together they ran to the net, avoiding the monster’s wind attacks.

“Amethyst! Jump into the air and use the volleyball to spike the beach!” Steven called out to Amethyst. 

“I understand!” Amethyst replied and, while holding the volleyball, jumped up as high as she could. When she could feel her speed slow down and gravity began to demand what belongs to it, she smacked the volleyball as hard as she could towards the beach. The ball turned into a super heated meteor and created a spiky formation of glass from the sand just like the one she had made accidentally with the badminton shuttle – only this time much larger.

Everyone flinched when the ball hit the sand. The danger was palpable.

“Here comes the tricky part!” Nanefua called to Steven as they kept running their circle.

“I'm ready!” Steven replied with a determined expression.

At last Steven and Nanefua broke away from their eternal circle and headed to the badminton court. The monster realised that it would have a clean shot of their backs and reoriented to give chase.

“Everyone! Take the net to the other side of the court!” Nanefua yelled as she and Steven reached the others. Together they all picked up the net by the poles and carried it away from the spikes. The monster chased the group, unwittingly positioning itself between them and the spikes.

“Okay, everyone, push the net into its face!” Steven yelled, and they changed directions and started to carry the net towards the monster. The concentrated wind blew its greatest force into – and effectlessly through – the net while the split group got only the edge of the force.

“It's not enough!” Nanefua shouted when they were leaning the net into the monster’s face with all their might, but unable to pop it against the spikes.

Steven glanced up. “Don't worry, here comes Amethyst!”

Amethyst fell fists first onto the monster, which wasn’t able to defensively lift its wind to blow Amethyst away due to the net in its face. The punch moved the monster backwards the necessary inches, so that it was impaled on the spikes of glass.

The monster’s form disrupted in a poof that knocked everyone back and kicked up a mighty cloud of dust. Before the dust even managed to settle, Amethyst sought the monster’s gem, bubbled it and with a tap to the top of the bubble sent it away; she was taking no chances with this one. Meanwhile the humans and half-human were still coughing up dust with their eyes stinging with sand.

\- - - -

As the dust had settled down and everyone had had a chance to process everything that had happened, the Pizzas were ready to head home. Kofi turned to Amethyst, and said: “Thanks for your hospitality.”

Nanefua jabbed Kofi lightly in the stomach with her elbow, as if reminding him of something. “And?” She said.

“And, for saving my family,” Kofi added, “you are officially un-banned from my shop.”

“Aw, thank you so much, Kofi! We really appreciate it, right, Amethyst?” Steven replied with a smile.

“Yes, thanks,” Amethyst said flatly. She was looking at Nanefua, lost in thought. For a long time Amethyst had been the only gem around – at least the only gem in full control of her powers – and she had grown used to the idea that she had to protect the humans because she was the only one who could do it as the humans were so weak. But today it had been the humans that had helped _her_. And hadn’t Steven helped her on several missions now, helped her even though he had not had access to his gem powers, as if he were just a human? She looked at Steven, right as he turned to nudge her.

“Aaaand?” He tried to prompt her to say something else to the Pizzas.

Amethyst looked at Steven’s eager face and to the Pizzas. “And thank you for helping me poof that monster,” Amethyst said sincerely. “Maybe humans aren’t completely helpless,” she added with a smile.

Steven’s eyes widened in a panic at the insensitive comment as the Pizzas eyes widened with surprise upon hearing it. “Whoooo wants dessert?” Steven yelled desperately.


End file.
